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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25011763">If You Love Your Job, You Never Work a Day in Your Life</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/FireflySong/pseuds/FireflySong'>FireflySong</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Pride Month Writing Prompt Challenge 2020 [27]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>The Dark Pictures: Man of Medan (Video Game)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Gen, Introspection, Work, alex/julia only mentioned because its canon before the game starts, i honestly dont know how to even tag this, so if you hated it you can still pretty much read this, theres no shipping or anything</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-07-01</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-07-01</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-04 05:47:29</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,198</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25011763</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/FireflySong/pseuds/FireflySong</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Choices were made before things ever started. Before clues were found and abandoned ghost ships were traversed. Work needed to be done to get everyone to this point after all.</p><p>Written for Day 27: Work of the Pride Month Writing Prompt Challenge over on tumblr.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Julia/Alex Smith (Dark Pictures)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Pride Month Writing Prompt Challenge 2020 [27]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1770988</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>If You Love Your Job, You Never Work a Day in Your Life</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>honestly didnt think i was going to write anything else for this fandom, and yet here we are. so just enjoy some introspection of the work (or lack thereof) that these characters had to put in to even reach the point of no return.</p><p>you can find me on tumblr at love-fireflysong if you feel so inclined!</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Did Fliss want to take the job in the first place? No. Definitely not. The last thing she wanted to do was a diving trip for a bunch of rich, entitled Americans. And instead of just picking one or two of the more popular diving spots available for tourists or diving enthusiasts in the French Polynesia, they gave their own diving coordinates. It wasn’t even in a location that had ever been dived either! Who even did that?</p><p>Rich, entitled Americans, that’s who.</p><p>So yeah, Fliss was not looking forward to this job in any sense of the word. But she needed it. She was late on her payments for the Duke, and it was her home and livelihood. And these people had rented the most expensive of diving equipment, and were promising to pay out of their ass to get the trip. So, against her better judgment, she took it. A job was a job after all.</p><p>She still made a note to sell her laptop and cancel her cell, just is case.</p><p>  -------------------------------------------------------- </p><p>Brad knew that he was right! He had to be, he had been researching for <i>months</i> after all. Looking up where the plane had started, reading transcripts of the distress call once it had been shot, and hoping that it had headed back to base. The math on how long the plane would have been able to continue flight if shot in the fuselage, the guesswork needed to determine where in the South Pacific that the plane may have finally went down. And finally—<i>finally!</i>—he had an answer, a rough location of where to dive. </p><p>To find a wreck that no one else had. Undived and undiscovered. And if he was lucky, he would get to be the first to see it first hand. A relic of history. Brad knew that Alex had always been a little embarrassed of him growing up, the too nerdy and socially awkward little brother. But this, this was his chance to prove himself, to both Alex and his brothers girlfriend. He could do this!</p><p>He just had to hope that all of his work and research was up to par.</p><p>-------------------------------------------------------- </p><p>The amount of money that Julia had put into making this trip go was, quite frankly, a little terrifying. A few grand to get the re-breathers—state of the art in diving!—and few more grand to book the trip with Captain Dubois and, more importantly, her boat. Plus another couple of hundred to convince her to even agree to go to the coordinates that Alex’s brother had provided in the first place. And then a couple grand more to book plane tickets for four. Plus a hundred or so for a new bathing suit to wear and impress Alex. </p><p>She'd had to put work into this dammit! Hours of phone calls, of internet searches, of talking her parents into letting her take nearly thirty grand for what would be a a couple of days at most of diving in the South Pacific. All while Connie had laid around and done nothing at all to help. Typical. He was lucky she had even invited him on the trip! At least Alex’s brother had helped by finding the location of the dive in the first place!</p><p>He had better have been right about those coordinates. All of Julia’s hard work would be going to waste anyways. If nothing else, it had been a couple of weeks since she’d last seen Alex, so, at least she had that to look forward too.</p><p>-------------------------------------------------------- </p><p>Alex was terrified. He had bought the ring weeks ago and it had been burning a hole in his pocket this entire time. But he was also excited. He was going on a diving trip to the French Polynesia with his girlfriend (and love of his life), her older brother, and Brad. He was about to explore an undiscovered and untouched wreck. He couldn’t think of a better time to propose.</p><p>The amount of money he'd had to save in order to afford the ring in the first place was better left unsaid, but it would be worth it! He was doing exceptionally well in school, acing all of his courses, and was the envy of the rest of his class mates. Alex was going to be a doctor, and engaged to the most beautiful girl on campus, hell, the East Coast!</p><p>At least, he would be. If only he could work up the courage to propose in the first place.</p><p>-------------------------------------------------------- </p><p>To be fair, Conrad wasn’t the most ambitious of people. He was content for the most part to skate by in life, enjoying the fineries it offered him. It helped that he was extremely charismatic and always down for a laugh or two, so it endeared him to most people. Like the ladies (<i>especially</i> the ladies). And if a beer or two was involved? Even better. So when Julia had invited him on her diving trip to meet her newest boyfriend, the up-and-coming doctor, he was on board right away!</p><p>A couple of days enjoying the sun and water of the exotic French Polynesia. A beer always in hand as he relaxed on a boat. Not having to do a single iota of work other than making sure there was enough alcohol on board in the first place? Sounded like the dream summer vacation to him! </p><p>He couldn’t wait.</p><p>-------------------------------------------------------- </p><p>Olson had a plan. It had been pretty simple at first, just go out fishing with Junior and Danny. And then they had spotted the boat. It wasn’t one he recognized, or in a location was common to divers, so he had been a little curious. And then he had run his boat into the diving line. That had been fine, all a part of the plan really. Point out the now dented and possibly compromised siding and demand reparations.</p><p>And then that self-assured, white American had started throwing money at him. Literally throwing money, not even caring as it landed on the water and turned to mush. He was a pretentious asshole, but a RICH pretentious asshole. The best kind really. The kind that had enough money to unthinkingly waste on the ocean, so more then enough to waste on keeping himself alive.</p><p>So he had a new plan. One that meant Olson wasn’t going to have to fish for a very, <i>very</i> long time.</p><p>-------------------------------------------------------- </p><p>Another day, another tale to add to the books. The Curator of Stories was very proud of vast collection. Oh! The stories he had compiled on his shelves in his repository. Of the lives snuffed with little thought. The decisions made in a hurry, in a panic, that would determine if they saved or condemned the fate of the character is question. The choices done with little thought for the consequences or repercussions that would befall them later on. Finding out if logic would push them through to the end, or if it be the emotional pulls that guided them to their deaths. Vice versa, perhaps?</p><p>They say that if you love your job, then you never work a day in your life. And oh, did the Curator love his job.</p>
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